Angel or Demon
by WinterAngel24
Summary: Haruka was a normal human turned into a sacrifice by her own village. Now as the 'key' to the tri ni sette she must find a way to stay in the light.  Will the Arcobaleno and Tsuna be able to save her from becoming a demon of hell?   Ch1-3 edited
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, this is how I've decided to do this. I'll put up the original version of this story and if you guys don't like it, then I'll switch it back with the other one. I've also decided that I'll update this story depending on how many reviews I get, since it's only fair that I pay more attention to my more popular stories.**

**I also decided to add quotes. I was inspired when I saw some really funny ones after going though a newspaper for the first time in...ever. But those will have to wait till the right chapter.**

**So here it goes. Please tell me what you think!**

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><p><em>"Death is always around the corner, but often our society gives it inordinate help."<em>

_-Carter Burwell_

_"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."_

_-Mark Twain_

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><p>Chapter 1 Punishment for Living<p>

A pretty woman and her husband gazed lovingly down at their newborn. She was, in their opinion, one of the cutest babies in the world. She had tuffs of auburn hair and stunning blue eyes.

"She has such pretty eyes!" The mother cooed.

"She must have gotten them from your side of the family," the father commented with a small smile. "They look just like your mother's eyes."

"She's definitely going to gather the attention of all the males in the village. We're going have to be careful." The mother smirked at the thought of having to beat the boys away from her daughter.

The little girl laughed, as if sensing her parents' future antics. The smile was contagious and the parents found themselves chuckling with the small child.

Another young head peeked around the corner. "Mama, papa. What are you doing?"

The mother motioned for her (until recently) only child to come over, which the little girl did hurriedly. The father picked up his first born and held her over the small bed, showing her the new child of the house.

"Sweety, this is your new little sister!" The mother smiled and stoked a chubby cheek with a finger.

The father nodded. "As her big sister you're going to have to help us look after her, alright?"

The little girl scrunched up her face. "I don't want a little sister."

"Lucy," the mother said in a reprimanding tone.

"Do you not love Lucy anymore? Is that why you had another child?" The little girl pouted.

"We love both of you equally!" The mother said immediately, shocked that her child had come to such a conclusion.

Before anymore words could be uttered, there was a knock on the door. The father handed his eldest child to the mother and walked over, opening the front entrance.

"Good evening Young Alexander," a gruff voice said.

"Ah…Good evening Mister Montague," the father said a little more hesitantly. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We're here for your child!" A different voice called out.

"Excuse me?" The father asked as little more sternly.

"We have nominated your child!" Another voice chimed.

"She shall be the one to save this village!" Yet another voice called out.

"You have no right to nominate my daughter for _that_ position," The father growled. "We will not hand her over. She is no savior."

"Please understand," Montague started again. "Our village is suffering, but if an angel accepts your daughter, then she will be given immense power! Then she'll be able to restore our poor village or even better!"

"Everyone has died from your foolish sacrifice!" The father snapped. "I will not allow you or anyone else to kill my baby girl for your ridiculous superstitions!"

There was a sigh. "I'm sorry Alexander, but you don't have a choice in this matter."

The father was forced aside and held back by several men of the village.

The mother screamed and grabbed her oldest child's hand, with her other arm safely wrapped around her baby, and made a run for it.

But she didn't get far. The villagers had surrounded their house.

The mother was dragged kicking and screaming, but she wouldn't release her hold on the baby, who oddly enough wasn't crying.

They were dragged out behind the house when there was a sudden flash of light and five winged angels appeared.

"Is this the one?" The female with short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a kind roundish face asked.

"Yes, yes!" Montague called out. "This is the child we were going to give to you!"

All the angels scowled.

"Pathetic," A sandy blond haired and green eyed male muttered.

The male one with chestnut brown hair and light blue eyes sighed. "Then we shall take her."

"Then she is compatible?" Montague asked with excitement and hope in his eyes.

"This child's body and soul will be the next container," A female angel with long purplish hair and eyes said blankly.

The mother cried out in anguish at those words. "No! Please! This is my baby! Not my child! Please!"

The mother and father were finally able to come together again. Both were weeping as they watched the events unfold, huddling protectively over their second child, the first one safely situated in her father's arms.

The brunette male flew down in front of the distressed couple with a sad smile. "I apologize, but may I…"

The mother shook her head furiously and tried to pull back, but the villagers stopped her retreat.

"I mean your child no harm," the man said softly. "She will live a long life, I can assure you that."

The black haired female angel landed beside the other. "If you do not let go of your child, then she shall be persecuted and mistreated by this village for the rest of her life."

"Then we'll move to another town!" The father nearly shouted.

"It is regrettable," a girl with blond hair and golden eyes said sadly. "But what's done it done."

"We'll take good care of her," the brunette added.

"Perhaps she can even visit you from time to time," the black haired angel offered, but her eyes were sad.

"What is her name?" The brunette asked kindly.

"Haruka," the mother sniffled. "Her name is Haruka."

All five angels smiled.

"That is a good name," the blond haired female angel said softly.

Suddenly, several villagers pushed the mother forward.

The brunette angel stepped forward and caught the woman before she fell. She looked up in surprise. The man smiled gently. "Please allow us to protect Haruka in your stead."

More tears tumbled down the mothers face, but she saw that there was no hope in fighting. This realization struck her to the core and she cried out in sorrow even louder. "Please. Please take good care of her." She kissed her child's forehead.

The father stepped forward and kissed his child as well. "Mama and Papa love you so much Haruka. You are always and forever part of our family."

The little girl finally opened her eyes. And after a quick look around, she cracked a wide smile. Little baby Haruka reached up and placed a hand on her mother and father's face, almost like she was telling them that it was alright.

Finally, with a heavy heart, the mother slowly handed the brunette angel her youngest child.

Once again, the five angels took to the air.

"Our village is saved!" The villagers started to cheer.

"No," the chestnut haired angel said quietly, yet his voice gained all of their attention. "You village is doomed."

Terror filled the hearts of the towns' people. Why wouldn't their village be saved? Wasn't the sacrifice meant to do just that?

"For sacrificing a child, rather than one of yourselves, and feeling no guilt toward the family you are stealing the child from," the black haired girl angel said coldly, "your village shall henceforth bear no protection and disappear."

Telepathically the angels told the mother and father to move to another town, and that they would not be harmed for their neighbors' deeds.

Then with another flash of light, the angels and the baby girl disappeared.

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><p>A young woman stared blankly at the older woman sitting across from her. "Are you sure?"<p>

The older woman nodded. "You know your duty. Now take care of this before that man releases the tri-ne-sette."

"Weren't you people supposed to stop this before it even got to this point?" The younger woman asked.

"It seems our interference wasn't able to reach the desired point," the older female replied calmly, almost as if she didn't care.

The younger woman clicked her tongue in annoyance, but took the folder before she walked out of the office.

This was her duty.

As the key to unleashing the tri-ne-sett, she must protect the people of this world.

No matter how bitter she felt that she would always be alone, she must protect. That was her purpose in life, the job that fate had given her.

Even if she didn't want to live anymore.

Even if she detested the ignorant people of the world.

Even if she didn't want to have so much power.

Even when she had to watch someone she truly cared about die of old age, while she was left behind, frozen in time.

Haruka would continue living. It wasn't a choice. It was her duty. Because who else would willingly live an eternity protecting an ungrateful world.

It was her job.

It was her responsibility.

It was her curse.

Her punishment for living.


	2. Chapter 2

**And further down the rabbit hole we go!...Honestly, I have no idea why I just put that. However, here we go with chapter two! Don't forget to review! Heh, heh. That sort of rhymed. **

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><p><em>"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."<em>  
><em> -<span>Mark Twain<span>_

_"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."_  
><em> -<span>Confucius<span>_

_"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice."  
>-<span>Albert Einstein<span>_

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><p>Chapter 2 To Be Perfect<p>

Haruka shifted her position a little. She was waiting in a large cave and was perched at the very center in a hole in the ceiling. There was a crystal like structure directly below her.

But those who were more knowledgeable would know that it was not in fact diamond or any other crystal, but a special type of ice. Ice that would never melt. Not unless it was under the correct type of flame.

Haruka decided to check her gear as she waited. She needed her weapons in order and she had to make sure there was nothing for anyone to identify her with. As she made sure her hair was tucked safely out of sight, Haruka remembered the day she had discovered the change…

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><p><em>Haruka was training by a lake today. During break she bent down to douse her head into the cool water when she froze.<em>

_A girl with white hair _and light silvery blue eyes was_ looking up at her. But when Haruka moved, so did the girl._

"_WHAT THE-?"_

_Charles (the angel with the chestnut brown hair) ran over. "What is it? Are you ok?"_

_Haruka grabbed his collar and shook him violently. "My hair! My hair! My hair is white! Why is my hair white?"_

_Charles laughed, despite still being shaken violently._

_A shoe came out of nowhere and knocked Haruka to the side. Momo (the angel with purple hair) walked over. "Don't overreact. We thought someone had discovered you."_

_Haruka jumped off the ground and pointed at her head. "Why is my hair white? Last time I last looked at myself it was a nice _normal_ brown!"_

"_When you received the power of the 'key' to protect the tre-ni-sette two years ago it turned your hair white. It's only natural that the container matches the flames does it not?" Momo said coolly._

"_Ha, ha! We thought you already noticed. I mean your hair is so long that we thought it would have flipped in front of your face!" Charles laughed._

"_I just flip my hair back without looking as a reflex," Haruka said stiffly with an eye twitching in irritation._

* * *

><p>Haruka recalled how inconvenient white hair was because even in this world, white was rare, so it drew a lot of attention and was more difficult to forget.<p>

Haruka picked up what looked like a short baton. It was white with a slight blue sheen. Careful not to have any ends pointing at herself first, she infused some of her flames into the short metal stick making it extend into a long staff. After making sure the weapon was in order, Haruka defused the flames and placed the once again short pole back into its holster situated on her back belt line.

Haruka had to make sure she carried out this mission perfectly. There were too many consequences or her to mess up. It didn't matter what other people thought about her. No matter what, she had to be perfect. Everything had to be perfect. Even if she hated perfection, it was the life she was forced to live.

Haruka's senses picked up movement. People were coming into the room. She could recognize all of them. She had done a thorough background check on everyone who would show up.

Haruka shifted her position a little. It was time for her to act.

* * *

><p>All the Arcobaleno walked into the room, their reps trailing after them, and formed a circle around the structure.<p>

A boy with fluffy brown hair, named Tsuna, glanced around the cavern. He wondered if it was a good idea to help Reborn with this after all. The Varia, Simon famiglia, Mukuro and his gang, Hibari, Byakuran's group, Gamma and Tozaru, and the external advisor of Vongola: CEDEF was gathered here. Tsuna really didn't want to fight these people.

Tsuna focused his gaze on the crystal in the center of the cave. It looked like a giant white bird was frozen in the center. Its wings were pulled forward to hide its head. Though that was strange, didn't most birds tuck their head under their wings, not fold their wings in front of them?

The man in the iron hat appeared in the middle, standing on top of the crystal like structure. He smiled tauntingly. "Your task is quite simple. To free one of the Arcobaleno of the curse of the rainbow, you must not only defeat your opponents, but you must use your flames to melt this ice. Be careful not to break it open using force, because it will shatter the person inside as well."

"Who is frozen inside and why?" Reborn demanded.

The man laughed. "The original guardian on the tre-ni-sette froze herself. For the reason why…well I suppose you can as her yourself."

"What do you mean a girl froze herself?" Tsuna exclaimed, "How is that a person? It has wings!"

Reborn, Colonnello, Lal, and Fon frowned. Yuni looked down in remorse.

"All of us knew her. She wasn't the type of person to resort to such a tactic," Reborn seethed.

"Well I guess you're just going to ask her yourself when a representative melts the ice," the man quipped. He jumped over to a ledge over the entrance to the cave.

The blond haired man next to Tsuna, named Dino, tensed. "So when do we start?"

Yamamoto and Gokudera who were standing behind Tsuna and Dino slid out their own weapons.

But before the man could speak a figure rained down from the ceiling. All eyes followed this person as they pulled their hand back and punched the block of ice. To their horror the ice cracked all the way down to the bottom and shattered into hundreds of little pieces.

The figure landed and muttered, "My debt is repaid."

"Who are you?" Reborn demanded.

"How dare you steal my future of living without this curse," Mammon shouted.

The person was wearing a piece of cloth over their mouth and goggles. The goggles were exactly the same as the ones Lal Mirch wore, except instead of a reddish orange visor it was a dark blue.

They looked around at the group and stopped at Reborn. The two stared at each other.

None of them could see this person's eyes.

"Attack that person at once!" The man in the iron hat was furious.

The members of the Varia as well as Mukuro and his gang didn't need to be told twice. They attacked immediately. But the intruder dodged their attacks with ease. They knocked Levi, Chikusa, Ken, M.M., and Lusseria against the walls.

This enemy was definitely strong.

Yamamoto and Gokudera jumped down as well. Before they jumped into the fray they slipped into their cambio forma. Gokudera threw dynamite toward the intruder, but the enemy grabbed the dynamite and threw it towards the others.

"Oya? Using the enemy's weapons against them instead of just defusing it?" Mukuro muttered as he dodged.

Yamamoto tried to slice the enemy from behind with his sword, but was blocked by a staff. The intruder had pulled out a short black metal pole and made it extend.

Mukuro also slipped into his cambio forma, but backed away to observe.

Yamamoto and Squalo attacked the intruder with their blades, but their attacks were blocked and countered. Yamamoto infused his rain flames into the sword and sliced the pole in half. He smiled, they had this person now. But the person grabbed the ends that had been cut, holding it so that the staff was against their forearms, and attacked once again. Yamamoto tried to attack and cut up the rest of the staff, but he was blocked with …a blade?

Yamamoto's eyes widened. He hadn't cut this person's staff in half. This person's staff could split into two, and then change into two katana swords and this person was way better at fighting with swords than Yamamoto and Squalo _combined_.

The single enemy knocked the rest of who was left fighting them back. They looked at the rest of the group who had not attacked them.

The person pulled down the cloth that was over their face and spoke again. "I do not wish to fight you."

"That's kinda hard to believe after you've defeated everyone who attacked you," Dino called out.

"They attacked first," The intruder said evenly.

'_No_,' Tsuna thought, '_this person sounds so emotionless_.'

"This is a one sided fight. It is obvious that you cannot win. Stand down." The intruder told them.

"You think we'll back down so easily? You hardly even scratched us," Gokudera yelled.

"You bear no wounds because I did not attack you seriously," The intruder informed emotionlessly.

"Wha-!" Gokudera spat.

"Shi, shi, shi!" Bel laughed, "This peasant has interested the prince." He threw knives at the enemy, but it was deflected with a whirl of their sword.

"Tsuna! Use your cambio forma and attack. You might be able to figure out something," Reborn whispered to his student.

"Hiiie! I don't want to! She's extremely strong, even Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto are having a difficult time!" Tsuna squealed.

Leon the shape shifting chameleon crawled into Reborn's hand and turned into a gun. "Just get a move on," Reborn said stubbornly and shot Tsuna.

The intruder turned around as they watched the new opponent fly and land in front of them.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi, I suggest you _back off_," the figure said coldly.

"How do you know my name?" Tsuna asked in his deeper and more confident hyper dying will voice.

"Foolish questions for foolish boys," the enemy said shortly.

"I suppose it doesn't matter," Tsuna commented before he propelled himself to attack.

The others backed away from the fight to watch how Tsuna handled the intruder. For a little while it looked like the intruder was dominating the fight, but slowly Tsuna's flames were wearing them down.

Tsuna's enflamed hand shot past the intruder's head. Although they had managed to avoid any injury, the hat had torn a little.

"Shit!" The adversary's hand shot up and covered the hole. This time the person sounded a little alarmed.

Tsuna knew he had discovered something important. This person was hiding something. Perhaps it was something that would give away their identity. Tsuna's intuition was telling him that the latter was the answer.

Now Tsuna really had the advantage because the foe was reduced to one hand and the other hand that was covering the tear was partially blocking their view on their left side.

Tsuna aimed for their blind spot and there was no way to avoid this blow. The opponent seemed to know that because they raised their right hand to protect their left side from damage.

No wait…

Tsuna jumped back to avoid the wall of flames that this person produced. He studied the intruder. Whoever it was had used sky flames.

The foe reached up and used their scarf to cover the hole in their hat while dodging the oncoming attacks.

The enemy was once again standing in the middle. He or she held a hand up in front of them and started gathering flames in their palm. Only this time they were gathering lighting flames.

"Crap!" Tsuna flew forward to try to absorb their flames and stop them from escaping, but it was too late. The person had already transported themselves to safety, using the same technique Ghost had used in the battle in the future.

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><p>Haruka was panting hard. That battle had required a lot more power than she had intended to use. She had managed to transport herself out of the cave, but she really didn't have the energy to use lightning flames any further than that. She just had to hope that Tsuna didn't come flying out of there.<p>

Haruka was able to use all seven types of flames along with her own, but it was more taxing. On the other hand she couldn't exactly use her own flame because it would be a dead giveaway.

Haruka berated herself as she kept running.

She had nearly messed up. Her performance wasn't perfect.

_Thatwasbad! Thatwasbad! Thatwas bad!_ She _had_ to be better than everything and everyone! That was the reason she was born. That was the reason she was allowed to live in the first place. She wasn't born to be like the rest of the human population. There were expectations for her. The weight of the world resided on her shoulders.

She had to protect them all.

She _must_ do better.

Haruka ran at the greatest speed possible. But she didn't feel safe till she hopped onto her motorcycle and pulled away. She noted as she sped away that she was putting a lot of pressure on her body, but she had no choice but to maintain consciousness till she finally reached her hideout.

Protect the tre-ni-sette they said!

It'll be easy they said!

You'll be stronger than them they said!

HA!

This job is like one of those medical commercials. List all the nice things slowly and easy to understand, then all those side effects are listed off faster than most care to pay attention to.

Side effects of the power she was given in order to protect the tre-ni-sette: Since she was still technically human her body couldn't withstand a total of eight flames. But since see couldn't exactly die her body would just break down and heal.

Haruka pulled up to her base of operations and hopped off her bike. The angels didn't necessarily live here with her. More of, they came and went as they pleased. But Haruka wasn't alone. She sighed as she walked into the large old house. It was too little to be called a mansion, but it was still bigger than any other two story home in this time.

She glanced around the empty room that she occupied from time to time before she went over to the seat under the window and sat down. She gazed out of the glass pane at the familiar surroundings. She had stared at this scene a thousand times already, watching as time continued to flow without her.

The door creaked open and Charles stuck his head in. "Hey there Haruka. We have some guests for you."

"Send them away," Haruka said uncaringly. "I'm too tired to put up an act. That mission required a great amount of strength."

"I would, but I really think you should see them."

Haruka sighed. She could tell from the man's tone of voice that he wasn't going to let her drop this one. "Who is it?"

"A large group from the Vongola."

"I most definitely do _not_ want to see any of those people," Haruka huffed a little.

The Vongola would forever remind her of that irritating man.

* * *

><p>"<em>Haaarruuuukaaaaaa!" Giotto slammed open Haruka's bedroom door.<em>

_Haruka shot a gun, barely missing him. She had only just gotten out of bed, so she was still in her nightgown. "What the hell do you want you bastard?"_

_Giotto didn't even flinch. "Cozart, G, and I are going over to Romeo's restaurant today! And I want you to come along!"_

"_I don't want to," Haruka turned away and walked over to her closet. "How the hell did you get in? I changed and added more locks."_

"_Oh! I broke your door down," Giotto said happily._

_Haruka felt a vein popped. "You better be joking."_

"_Nope! You would get mad if I broke a window, so I kicked down the door instead!"_

"_Giotto, you idiot!" Haruka (now fully dressed) tried to jump kick the blond who ran out of her house with Haruka chasing after him._

* * *

><p><em>Haruka sighed peacefully. She was up at one of her favorite spots, up the hill. It was sunny and there was a gentle breeze blowing through the grass and flowers. The trees rustled pleasantly. It was perfect.<em>

_A wet ball of cloth landed on her face._

"_Haaaruukaaaa! Wake up! You're not allowed to die yet! G and I need your help!" Giotto stood over Haruka. "Geez, you're so lazy! You should really help out more."_

_Haruka felt several veins popping. She had gotten up early and had been helping out all the villagers all day before Giotto had even woken up! This was her first break all day!_

_Haruka aimed a kick at the blonde's head, but his god forsaken hyper intuition helped him dodge it._

"_Violence is never the answer. Geez Haruka! I don't know what's making you so high strung, but you need to relax more!"_

_Okay, that did it!_

_Haruka sent one attack after another. She didn't care anymore. Today she was going to murder the stupid, lazy, aggravating, good for nothing, bastard!_

_G suddenly came up behind her and hooked her arms so that Haruka couldn't chase after Giotto any more. Haruka kept trying to run after the grinning fool. "Haruka calm down."_

"_No way! This time, he's dead! I'll kill him myself!" Haruka yelled furiously._

_G sighed. "I know he's an idiot-"_

"_Hey!" Giotto yelled._

_G ignored him. "But you know, he only does that because it's so easy to set you off. Normally Giotto's calm and reliable."_

"_Reliable my foot!" Haruka fumed._

* * *

><p><em>Giotto sat at the counter with his head propped on his hand. He watched Haruka pour herself a cup of coffee and lean against the counter. "You should wear a skirt today."<em>

_Haruka, who had just started to take a sip of her coffee, spat it out. She looked over at Giotto without wiping her mouth and started at him blankly. "Huh?"_

"_You're a girl, but all you wear is pants."_

_Haruka cleaned up the mess she just made. "Pants are more flexible. It's harder to fight when wearing one of those long skirts."_

"_You would look pretty in one."_

"_Like I care." Haruka went back to drinking her coffee._

_~Next day~_

_Haruka got up to change. She pulled on a shirt, but when she looked for a pair of pants she couldn't find anything but one long white skirt._

"_GIOTTO!"_

_The yell was heard across the whole village._

_Giotto, who was sitting at a café near Haruka's house with G and Cozart, smirked._

"_You do realize that she's going to kill you when she gets here," G said offhandedly._

_Giotto just smiled and took a sip of his coffee._

* * *

><p>"Haruka…<em>Haruka<em>!"

Said girl snapped out of her daze, but still didn't turn to look at the man. "What?"

"You looked like you were about to kill something."

"I wish to be left alone right now. I'm tired."

"Haruka, please don't be difficult. You just need to hear them out. If you still don't see the need to help them, then I'll consider sending them away."

Haruka sighed again. "I'll listen, but that doesn't mean I'll talk with them."

Charles nodded and left the room, turning the light on before he left. A moment later the double doors were fully opened and a large group of people entered the room. "I apologize for the wait. Here is-…Holly I thought I made it clear that you weren't allowed to use illusions to avoid guests."

"Tch." Haruka let her flames disperse, revealing her form to the others. Not that it did very much, as she was still staring out the window, refusing to face anyone else despite the lack of light outside. Holly was the name she was currently going by in this time.

Vongola Nono was the first to speak. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Miss Holly."

"Do not bother with pleasantries, for I have none to return to you," Haruka said with a small sigh.

"As insolent as ever I see," Coyote muttered, though his tone was lighthearted.

Haruka ignored the ninth generation storm guardian's comment. "For what reason do I owe your bothering me this time?"

Vongola Nono chortled a little, but continued. "Well, first off, I would like to introduce the prospective tenth generation. I'm sure you already know of them, but I would like them to meet you face to face."

"We have already met, whether they remember it or not," Haruka said in the same uncaring tone.

"Well, then to formally introduce you to them, then," Nono amended with a slight incline of his head.

"Hi, I'm Holly, not so good to meet you, Sawada Tsunayoshi or Dame-Tsuna, Gokudera Hayato aka Octopus Head, Yamamoto Takeshi the baseball nut, Sasagawa Ryohei also called turf top, Lambo Bovino the stupid cow, and Chrome Dokuro the stand in/not stand in for Rokudo Mukuro." Haruka said in a blank and emotionless. "Now leave little groupie of old coots and brats."

"How dare you disrespect Juudaime!" Gokudera shouted, outraged.

"Calm yourself Gokudera-kun," Nono said gently.

Gokudera immediately desisted, bowing to the ninth in apology.

Haruka sighed. "What else is it that you want Timoteo? You must have some menial task that you wish for my assistance with, or you would not come all the way out here. So pray tell, what is the _true_ reason you came calling?"

"Holly," Charles said in a terse tone. "Remember your place in this world and your responsibilities."

"I am not required to look after each and every human that is alive," Haruka replied testily. "My _responsibilities_ apply to them as a whole. It is _you_ who has me attending to these smaller parties."

"This _smaller party_ bears of piece of your protection as well," Charles retorted. "Or have you forgotten?"

"Forget my curse? Ha, I would sooner forget my name," Haruka answered in a quiet and scathing voice. "And may I remind you that I only agreed to listen, I never said I would actually do anything."

"It's quite alright," Nono spoke up calmly. "We are at fault for coming so unexpectedly."

"Tch." Haruka shifted a little to get into a more comfortable position, placing her feet on the bench and pulling her knees closer.

"Ciaossu, Little Bird."

Haruka's lips twitched a little, as if tempted to smile. She looked down at the infant seated on her knees (making the hitman taller than her) with a considerably softer look. "Hello, Reborn. I'm surprised you remembered that little nickname."

"Fnn. Did you expect me to forget? I was sure I ingrained into your head that I'm the number one hitman and incapable of forgetting such a detail." Reborn bopped the girl on the nose lightly when she rolled her eyes in response. "You seem to more irritable than the last time I saw you, but do you think you can push your emotions behind you long enough to listen to everything Nono has come to ask of you."

Haruka sighed. "You ask a great deal of me right now piccolio sicario (small assassin)."

"You could consider this a favor for me," Reborn said with a smile. He knew that it wasn't really fair to use this tactic, but the ninth needed to ask for the girl's help with the tenth generation.

Haruka sighed again. "That's mean Reborn. I do believe you're playing dirty."

"I'm mafia, remember?"

"How can I forget when you throw it in my face every time we meet?" Haruka closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Very well. I shall listen without interrupting this time."

"Thank you very much," Nono said graciously. "If possible, I would like you to personally train the tenth generation for a bit. I fear that an enemy that they cannot hope to face will be here soon. They are very strong for their age, but they have much to improve if they want to overcome any future obstacles."

Haruka, who had still yet to face the crowd that had entered her room, stared up at the stars for a bit before answering. "I have not seen anything too disastrous for your family in the near future. Therefore I see no reason to train this group of children."

"Nono I apologize beforehand for my rudeness, but I do not believe that we need training from this little girl!" Gokudera argued. "She looks weak, possibly even sickly, and there is no way that we can learn _anything_ from the likes of her. I doubt she has even been in a real fight before!" Gokudera stopped his rant when the girl broke out into a fit of mirthless laughter.

"What does a child like you know of battle? I have seen a great many wars in my time, all started for stupid and selfish reasons. And you claim I know nothing of fighting? HA! The gull! G would be disappointed to see his ancestor spewing such foolishness. No. This child won't do at all. He has yet to mature to a manageable level. I would do better to try teaching a pig how to fly."

At these words, Tsuna frowned. It was obvious that this girl was mocking his friend. "How can you say that when you have no idea what we've been through?"

Haruka finally turned to face the group, showing them her silver eyes. "Not only do you bear a great resemblance to that man, but you have the same foolish view of life as well. You're naïve. Just like your ancestor, perhaps even more so."

"You shouldn't assume such things, Tsuna," Reborn reprimanded. "Knowing her, she probably knew everything before it even happened."

Tsuna's eye's widened in shock. "But how? She was never anywhere nearby."

"The skies are my eyes, the wind is my ears, and the trees are my touch... I am everywhere and I am nowhere at all... I am all, but I am nothing... My being is the ebb as well as the flow. And all the while time will pass me by." Haruka paused between each piece, like a spell or a special rhythm. "I did not have to be next to you to know you struggles with Byakuran in the future, nor the misunderstanding with Cozato Enma and his family on the Shimon island caused by that idiota Daemon Spade. Neither did I have to be in that cave when Mr. Checkerface tried to trick you into releasing my sister's seal, only for you to fail and watch her get killed by that masked assassin."

The tenth generation stared at the other girl in shock. She really did know everything. But was it a fluke? Did someone tell her ahead of time? But she couldn't have known about that last part, they had just come from that cave moments ago…

"_You_, on the other hand, know nothing of the world. You can barely even remember your own childhood." Haruka turned back to the window once more.

"Fnn. You seem to have become a lot more cynical than when we last met," Reborn stated as he studied the girl.

"Reborn. I just lost my sister, and through her, my last link to the human world. What did you expect? That I would be jumping for joy and doing the cha-cha?"

'_Doing the what…?_' Tsuna continued to study the girl as well. There was something…familiar, about her and also very sad.

"I still cannot allow such a disrespectful kid who acts like she knows anything and everything to teach Juudaime," Gokudera growled. "We would be better off on our own!"

Reborn cocked an eyebrow. "Are you saying _I_ was not a suitable tutor, Gokudera?"

"Not at all, Reborn-san! You are the greatest tutor around!" Gokudera said immediately with the upmost respect. "And I'm sure that we would learn much more from you than that woman over there!" He glared at Haruka.

Haruka huffed. She was nearing the end of her patience. "I am growing tired of this conversation. If you have nothing else then I would like you to leave."

"Ruka…" Charles said slowly.

"Don't call me that," Haruka snapped, breaking out of her uncaring and emotionless attitude.

"Why? Because that's the nickname that man gave you?" Charles raised an eyebrow. "You didn't mind it when he and those other two called you that."

"Obviously you aren't them," Haruka pointed out.

"Hey, Ruka." Reborn hopped back up onto her lap.

"Really, Reborn?" Haruka asked through a sigh.

The hitman smirked. "Why don't you spar with my student for a bit and give me an evaluation. I might get new ways to tor- I mean, tutor him with."

'_He was definitely going to say torture!_' Tsuna screamed in his mind.

Reborn got a small smile to escape the girl. "I'm glad to see you have such a good relationship with the boy, but couldn't you just let me give you my evaluation now? I see no reason to waste energy in a fight."

"It'll also be a good chance for Tsuna to see where he stands in upcoming fights," Reborn explained. "I doubt he'll get another chance to fight with someone of your caliber who won't kill him."

It was Haruka's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Oh? So if you fought him with all your might, you wouldn't be able to stop yourself from killing him? After all, I consider you and the other seven to be at my level."

"Fnn." Reborn smirked. "It's tempting, but I shouldn't let myself be the only one to enjoy beating him up to that extent. This is your chance to beat Vongola Decimo black and blue with no consequences."

"I can't believe you just sold me out like that!" Tsuna screeched.

Haruka smirked as well. "Well, when you put it like that...Then, I'll take you up on that offer."

"Reborn!" Tsuna protested loudly.

* * *

><p><strong>I think I shall end this chapter with a nice quote.<strong>

_"Suicide is man's way of telling God, "You can't fire me - I quit."_  
><em> -<span>Bill Maher<span>_

**Okay, so maybe it wasn't pleasant, but it made _me_ laugh.**

**Well, how was this chapter? Did you like it?**


	3. Chapter 3

**So here's the new chapter three. Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter before you move on to the next one.**

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><p><em>""I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."<br>-Clarence Darrow_

_"Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death_."  
>-<span>Annie Lennox<span>__

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><p>Chapter 3 Pain of the Heart and Souls<p>

Haruka opened up the window and hopped out with Reborn riding on her shoulder while Charles led the group through the house and out the backdoor.

"So how are you going to evaluate my student, Haruka?" The small hitman asked.

Haruka hummed a bit. "I was thinking hand to hand combat, with no weapons on my part. By the way, thanks for not using my name in front of the others."

Reborn nodded. "Are you going to tell Tsuna and his guardians anything?"

"I see no reason right now, but," Haruka sighed, "if I get stuck with them for too long, then something might force my hand." She walked out a distance from the house and bent down. She burned the grass away so that she was standing in a circle about three times her width.

Tsuna, who had jogged out to the other two, shrieked in shock and backed away a distance. Haruka raised an eyebrow at him. But decided to ignore his frightened squeal and told the boy her requirements.

"All you have to do is knock me out of this circle. To make it fair," Haruka unstrapped her coat and weapons, tossing them to the side, "I'll fight bare handed."

"How dare you underestimate the tenth!" Gokudera shouted.

"Now, now," Yamamoto held the silver teenager back, but when he looked up at Haruka he was more serious. "I don't think you should write us off just yet."

"She's not underestimating you," Reborn told the group. "Rather, you're all underestimating Holly and overestimating Tsuna."

Haruka took note of this before turning to gaze at the others emotionlessly. "I'm supposed to evaluate him, am I not? If he cannot do this much then it's not worth my time. But first..."

Haruka turned toward the forest and with a flick of her wrist a dozen shards of ice flew out. There was a sickening crunch as several bodies fell to the ground.

"Your presence has attracted quite a few flies," Haruka said to Nono, without looking at the man.

The younger members of the group stared at the girl in shock. She had killed all of those men without a seond thought.

Nono was used to such actions and treated it like it was nothing. He bowed a little. "My apologies, but you know as well as I do that my position tends to draw unwanted attention."

"Couldn't you have dealt with them differently?" Tsuna protested.

Haruka just stared at the boy. "Then they would just keep coming back. If you want them to stop bothering you then you have to prove you're stronger than they can ever hope to be."

"You're as soft as ever, Little Bird," Reborn commented.

Tsuna whipped around to look at his tutor. "What?"

Reborn shook his head, but smirked a little as he ignored his student and looked at the girl. "You have all that strength, but you choose to knock them out instead?"

"You're student would have been too noisy if I killed them," Haruka replied.

Tsuna sighed a little in relief, but then Reborn's words hit him and he gulped. If Reborn was saying stuff like that, then that means this girl was tough. He pulled on his mittens and swallowed his dying will pills. When he next opened his eyes, they were a fiery orange.

Haruka turned back so that she was fully facing Tsuna. '_So similar..._' She thought almost wistfully, but she banished they thought and motioned for the boy to start.

Reborn smirked and he and the others went off to the side so that they could observe without getting in the way.

To the crowd on the steps, Tsuna seemed to disappear. He tried to punch Haruka from behind, but his fist was caught by her hand. His eyes widened in shock.

Haruka hadn't even turned around. She was completely relaxed and she even had her eyes closed.

Tsuna pulled his hand away and sent a series of punches and kicks at her, but each one was dodged or blocked. Tsuna aimed a punch and knowing that she would dodge to the side, he followed with trying to knee her.

Haruka's eyes finally opened and she caught his knee. "Certainly, you can't be serious. If you're going to use that kind of an attack, you need to be more aware of your opponent's weak spots. Instead of aiming for my side with a knee, you should have gone with a kick to my ankles." She shoved Tsuna away.

'_He's just as naive as-_' Haruka forced that thought process to stop in favor of watching the boy, but it felt like something was starting to shatter inside of her.

Tsuna observed the girl's emotionless face from a distance, looking for an opening, before going in again.

After a while of watching them fight Gokudera started noticing something. "Hey, Reborn-san. Doesn't it seem like that Holly woman is training Juudaime more than fighting him?"

"Yeah, I was thinking that too," Yamamoto agreed.

Reborn pulled his fedora down and smirked. "That's because it's her nature to help others."

"I said come at me with full force." Haruka huffed in slight irritation, a slight frown marring her usually emotionless mask. "You have other more powerful attacks than just hand-to-hand combat. If you're anything like that man and you really want to get me out of this circle then you have to use everything you got."

Tsuna nodded and flew up into the air. Setting one hand back and the other in front he prepared for and X-Burner.

"Isn't that a little much?" Yamamoto asked. "She doesn't even have anything to defend herself with."

"That just means that Juudaime's won!" Gokudera smirked.

"I wouldn't underestimate Holly," Charles said calmly.

Tsuna fired, but Haruka merely brushed the attack away with the back of her hand. She sighed. "I said to attack with _full force_."

The tenth generation guardians stared with shock. That attack was one of Tsuna's most powerful, but that girl had acted like it was nothing.

Tsuna shook himself a little then called out Natsu, but before he could slip into his cambio forma Haruka started coughing violently. She fell to her knees with her eyes squeezed shut with one hand over her mouth and the other clutching her chest. Tsuna frowned in concern and landed in front of her. He blinked in shock.

Haruka was coughing up blood.

"Har-" Charles started to call out.

"I'm fine," Haruka panted, "I'm just a little tired. That's all". She pushed herself back up.

"Hm. I think that you're rejecting it," Charles analyzed. "The more you reject it, the more it'll damage your body in return."

Haruka looked away. "What do you expect. For what reason would any sane person accept such a role? I was never even given a choice from the very beginning. All this has ever done it take away anything I've ever considered important to me."

"Still, you should try accepting it till _that_ day passes, or you may be faced with other problems," Charles scolded lightly.

"What day?" Reborn questioned the duo, eyeing Haruka critically.

Haruka didn't look at the small hitman. "It's nothing."

Charles sighed. "If you keep this up then you're not going to be a very stable core. The five of us are beginning to wonder about your ability to maintain that _thing_, you were a regular human in the beginning after all."

"I'm fine," Haruka protested.

"Hm~ Well do as you wish, not that you wouldn't have done anything different." Charles shrugged.

She turned back to Tsuna. "Continue."

Tsuna hesitated for a bit, but after a nod from both Charles (who sighed heavily before doing so) and Reborn he went into his cambio forma. But he didn't attack right away. Tsuna watched his opponent and tried to figure out what he could do that might make her move, even if it was just the slightest bit.

Haruka watched as the boy threw his burning axle attack at her, and for a second her heart stopped. He looked so much like…

She moved at the last second, due to her daze, and threw the attack right back at Tsuna, who used Primo's cloak to protect himself. This time Haruka ignored the similarities and threw a blast of sky flames at the boy, only for him to freeze her flames… "Zero Point Breakthrough," she whispered.

She watched, as if in slow motion, as the boy moved out of his stance and for a second Tsuna's image swapped with another's. And she was seeing a memory from long ago, when that man had shown her his new technique for the first time. Back when she actually felt alive...

And it was like something broke inside her. The emotions she kept pent up since that man died, came flooding out. Haruka collapsed to her knees holding her head in pain.

Too much…

It was too much…

He was just like that man…

Just like…

Haruka's walls came down and her eyes faded to a deep sapphire blue.

Forgetting about her evaluation, Haruka ran over to Charles and grabbed the front of his shirt. "Release me! Release me from this pain, this responsibility! I can bear it no more! My heart cannot take this torment!"

"You know I cannot," Charles replied calmly. "Is it that painful for you to feel the other side of human emotions again?"

"What good will come of this? Why do you keep me trapped as a anima incatenata? Why do you torture me with their presence like so? Why must you remind me of that man? Why? Why…" Haruka's voice faded. Her head fell and her grip loosened, but she did not release completely. She panted a little from her sudden burst.

Charles gazed at the girl sadly. He felt bad for hurting her like this, but meeting these people could help in the long run. "You should go with them to Japan. It's been quite a few years since you last visited his grave, yes?"

Haruka looked back up at the man, her eyes silver and her face expressionless once more. "I hate you."

Charles smiled. "I know."

There was a flash and a gust of wind, and the girl disappeared.

* * *

><p><em>Haruka was wondering around the Vongola mansion when she randomly walked into another large room. This room had a window covering more than half the wall and placed at an angle next to it was the new instrument that had come out. It was called a pianoforte, the updated version of the harpsichord.<em>

_Haruka glanced around and listened to see if anyone was nearby. Deeming it was safe and no one would hear or see her, she sat down on the bench in front of the piano._

_It had been so long since she last played one. Her fingers brushed over the keys._

_She played a simple chord and smiled a little at the sound. A familiar melody took over her being and she started playing._

_It was a song from her memories of the future. It was like the song reflected the life she was living and would live while with Giotto. It was hopeful at the beginning then picked up into a happy reminiscence, then slowed as she remembered some sad times, then picked up once again. But the end of the song ended is lost hope as she remembered that it would become nothing but a memory that she could never relive in the end._

_She played the entire song with her eyes closed. At some point while she was playing Haruka's eyes had turned back into their natural sapphire blue and she had started to cry. She frowned slightly from the concentration and because she was so wrapped up in the emotion of the tune and the memories that accompanied it. Haruka finally let the notes fade into silence. She raised a hand to wipe her eyes._

"_That was very beautiful," someone said softly near the door._

_Haruka's head snapped up and saw Giotto leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed and gazing intently at her._

_She stood up and walked briskly to the opposite door. Haruka couldn't believe she had let somebody see her like that._

_She was a mess and didn't know what to think._

"_Wait!" Giotto caught up to Haruka and caught her wrist, preventing her from escaping like she had desired. _

_Haruka didn't turn around. She couldn't say anything. Her heart was still in too much turmoil._

_Giotto didn't know what to do. He had never seen Haruka like this before. She was always so strong and gave off a forever prevailing aura, but now she seemed so vulnerable, fragile, and…human._

_So Giotto did the only thing he could think of. He followed his heart instead of his hyper intuition._

_He hugged her._

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><p>anima incatenata = chained soul<p>

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><p><strong>And that's going to be the end for chapter three. A lot shorter than chapter two, I know, but I cut out a lot of chit chat and moved other parts to the previous chapter because it flowed better that way.<strong>

**Please don't forget to review this chapter before you move onto the next one!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yo! It's been a while since I've updated this story huh, sorry about that. ^^" ****I've been a bit busy with school and my other KHR story so...**

**Well anyways thanks for reviewing my last chapters and thanks for the alert and favorite adds!**

**I also want to mention that there won't be very many memories from the past for the next few chapters because later there's going to be a _huge_ section for that, which I think you guys will like a lot! ;)**

**I hope you like this chapter as well, and please review!**

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><p>Chapter 4 Temper Tantrums<p>

Before Haruka could make it through the door she was cut off by the Varia.

"What?" She nearly shouted. "What could you possibly want now?"

Flan rocked back and forth on the balls of his heels off to the side, rather than in front, and answered for the rest of his group. "Sensei, if you're all those people that we are looking for, then we'd like to talk to you."

"No way!" Haruka snapped her arms up into an X in front of her. "I don't feel like dealing with anymore idiots today."

"Such a rude little girl," Lusseria whined.

"VOI! Why not decide this with a fight?" Squalo held up his sword menacingly.

Haruka threw her head back and groaned. "Look, I'm _really_ not in the mood for this right now."

"Shi shi shi! Too bad~," Bel sang before his knives sliced through the spot Haruka should have been standing.

Squalo tried to attack from behind but got deflected by Haruka's staff. She aimed a well-placed kick on the white haired man's arm and sent him skidding away. She hopped up into the air to dodge a series of punches sent by Lusseria, and sent her own attacks right back at the man.

"VOOII! Frog brat! Help us out!" Squalo charged in again.

Flan didn't move. "No way. I don't want to die yet."

As if to prove his point, white flames erupted on Haruka's hands and feet. Her eyes, like Tsuna's, had changed color. No it wasn't that it had changed color, they were just glowing a brighter shade of blue.

But instead of charging towards the Varia members to attack, she flew into the air and over the mansion. She made sure to stick her tongue out at them one last time before she was out of sight.

Haruka cut her flames and hurried over to their car, hopping into the driver's seat. She didn't bother waiting for her so called guardians. They had brought a second car just in case. They could use that one to get back.

What she had said was the truth. In this world only three people had ever reached her heart. That wasn't to say that she wasn't fond of anyone else. After all she cared for almost all the Arcobaleno. And she didn't mind the six who called themselves her guardians.

But none of them really knew her.

The other three weren't supposed to know either, but they had found a way in.

'_Stupid Giotto_,' Haruka thought in frustration, '_It's all his fault_.'

Giotto, and those other two idiots were the only ones in this world that Haruka had ended up truly caring about like family.

If she had just avoided that piano, then none of them would have been able to get so close to her. And then Haruka wouldn't have developed feelings for any of them. She wouldn't have gotten so hurt when they kept aging when she didn't. She wouldn't have cared so much when they died.

All because of that day when he found her crying.

Haruka stormed into the building and started packing her clothes and any items she would need and tossed them into a couple of bags. She started pulling away just as her guardians got back.

They weren't really her guardians. Just some people she just happened to save who stuck around even after their wounds healed. But for some reason they got it into their heads that she did it because she cared about their wellbeing and in return they wanted to protect her. The true reason she saved them was because she had a conscience and couldn't just leave the wounded behind, especially when she knew they would die because no one else would save them.

Before long, Haruka was at the airport and taking off for Japan. There was no doubt that Kiyoe and the rest would be following her soon. But at least for a short while she could have some time alone.

* * *

><p>Tsuna and his friends were on a plane back to Namimori, their meeting with Nono having concluded a short while ago. Tsuna was currently contemplating the girl they had just met. There was something about her that intrigued him. He could tell that she was hiding something, though he was probably the only one who noticed because of his hyper intuition.<p>

"Reborn, that Haruka girl…Who is she exactly?" Tsuna asked the small hitman seated in front of him.

Reborn studied his student. Yamamoto and Gokudera had perked up as well. "Dame-Tsuna Nono already told you."

"But when the Varia came in they said they were there to meet the white lily, crimson white angel, and eternal white butterfly or whatever. And that brown hair guy said that Haruka-san was all those people," Tsuna pointed out.

"And Nono said that, that woman was over 400 years old," Gokudera added, "Not only that, but her strength was off the charts. She didn't even blink when tenth used his X-Burner."

Tsuna nodded. "And I'm sure that even if I had gotten the chance to use my XX-Burner, it wouldn't have fazed her either."

Reborn tilted his head down slightly. "She and her sister had to bear a curse, just like the Arcobaleno. No one has known them before they received the curse, and they avoided interacting with people as much as possible. There's no way to tell if their strength comes from the years of experience or if they were born with that strength."

"Her sister?" Tsuna shouted in surprise.

Reborn nodded once. "The person frozen in that ice was her sister. She was the original guardian of the tre-ni-sette before the strongest seven were called in."

"Then, Reborn-san, doesn't that mean that it was that woman who destroyed the ice and the person inside?" Gokudera asked.

"No. Haruka isn't the type of person to do that. If anything, her sister probably hid the fact that she was going to freeze herself from her."

Tsuna was silent for a bit. "Reborn, who were Haruka-san and that man talking about?"

Reborn looked up at Tsuna.

"Well, that man said that someone had caught her before. And it sounds like they did some pretty horrible stuff to her." Tsuna frowned as he remembered the fraction of a second where the girl's sapphire eyes had revealed fear at the mention of whoever had captured her at one time.

Reborn pulled his fedora down to hide his eyes. "I'm not sure either. Like she said only three people have ever really gotten to know the real Haruka. I've known her for a long time, but she hasn't spoken of herself. I doubt even those people who came with her know anything about her."

"But we're pretty lucky Hibari isn't here," Yamamoto said cheerily.

"Yeah, if he had tried biting her to death and failed, then who knows what would have happened to the rest of us." Tsuna shivered at the thought.

"Cheh. I would have been able to take him on," Gokudera grumbled.

A while later they were climbing down the steps from the plane. As Tsuna waited for the others a hawk swooped down.

"Hiiiiiee!" Tsuna screamed and fell on his stomach as he dodged. The hawk swooped past him several times.

"Stupid bird!" Gokudera shouted as her ran over to help his beloved boss. "How dare you attack Juudaime!" The hawk squawked indignantly and Gokudera pulled out a few sticks of dynamite.

"Calm down Gokudera," Reborn called out. He held up Leon, who turned into a perch for the hawk to land on. "This is Haruka's partner. Tsuki carries important messages for her."

Said bird flapped its wings to draw attention to the backpack she was carrying. Reborn unclipped the opening and took out a rolled up piece of parchment. As soon as the opening was closed again Tsuki took off.

"What's it say, kid?" Yamamoto asked curiously

Reborn read the message quickly and looked up at Tsuna and the others, smirking. "She seems to already know about how practically everything has taken place at Namimori Middle. She wants all the guardians and the sky to gather there for her first test."

"Her first test?" Tsuna questioned hesitantly.

"She's going to see where you guys stand at and pick out the best course of training to use on each of you," Reborn explained. "Tsuna! You go and tell Mukuro and Chrome to meet us Namimori Middle tonight at ten."

"Mukuro!" Tsuna cried out in shock. "Why him?"

Reborn landed a well place kick on the poor boy's stomach. "Because Mukuro is your mist guardian, Dame-Tsuna."

"Ite-t-t-t." Tsuna held his stomach in pain. "Then why Chrome too?"

Reborn held up the note. "Because Haruka personally requested her."

At the end of the note there was one line scribbled quickly on the bottom:

_Make sure you bring Chrome. I don't want be stuck with a bunch of idiots with just Reborn._

Tsuna sweat dropped at the insult. He sighed wearily. This was going to be rather unpleasant.

* * *

><p>Somehow Tsuna had managed to convince Mukuro to come with the rest of them. There was a lot of screaming and running on Tsuna's part. Reborn had eventually shown up and told Mukuro that there would be something worth his while if he came. So now at ten o' clock, Tsuna and his six guardians, along with Chrome and the rest of the Kokuyo gang, were gathered in the courtyard of the school waiting for Haruka.<p>

"Tch. I didn't think that you would actually be able to gather them." Haruka hopped down from her perch on the roof.

Reborn smirked. "Of course they gathered, I'm Tsuna's tutor after all."

Haruka sighed. "I suppose I should have banned you from helping. Very well, they pass the first part."

Haruka walked away from the small hitman and stopped in front the group of teenagers who were spread out across the courtyard. Mukuro was with his gang and Hibari as far away from the crowd as possible.

The seemingly young girl crossed her arms as her gaze shifted from person to person, studying each of them. "Okay. Before I start, I'd like to take a look at your Vongola Rings."

Tsuna, Yamamoto, Gokudera, and Sasagawa looked at each other nervously.

"What?" Haruka asked, irritated.

"Well…" Tsuna trailed off.

Haruka frowned a little. "What!"

"They aren't the Vongola Rings anymore," Reborn informed her.

Haruka raised an eyebrow. "So they lost them?"

"No, they're the Vongola Gear now!" Yamamoto smiled and rubbed the back of his head. Reborn nodded to the group to signify that they should show Haruka what they meant. Vongola Decimo and his guardians held up their Vongola Gear so that the girl could see them properly.

Haruka's eye twitched. "My rings! What did you do to my rings!" The girl slapped a hand over her eyes. "Do you know how long it took me to make those? All those hours molding and designing the metal! Finding, cutting, and shining the perfect stone! And infusing the power! Oh the hours and energy it took just for the stupid power! And you go and _shatter_ them! What the hell were you thinking?" Haruka yelled and ranted with all her might. "God, you probably killed my sister by shattering them. Damn, now I have to go and talk to her to make sure she's alright."

Reborn pulled his fedora down a little to hide his expression. There was no easy way to say this, so he might as well not beat around the bush about it. "Haruka, you're sister's dead."

Haruka stopped her ranting and looked down at the baby. "What?"

"Your sister Yuki is dead. We saw her die a few days ago." Reborn frowned a little more.

A shadow covered Haruka's eyes hiding her expression from the rest. The teens felt bad for the girl. They all figured that she was probably in a lot of turmoil from learning of her sister's end so bluntly.

Suddenly Haruka's head snapped up. "That bitch! She went and died, leaving me here all alone? How dare she! I'll kill her dammit!"

Tsuna and his closer set of friends took a step back in shock. They hadn't been expecting the girl to get mad at her sister for dying. Sure if she was mad at whoever killed the other girl then that would make sense, but Haruka was ranting angrily about her sister.

Haruka took a deep breath to try to calm herself down. "Fine! Whatever. Now all of you slip into your Cambio Forma. You'll be fighting me as a team." She pulled off her coat and tossed it on the ground, leaving her in a blue spaghetti strap tank-top and her long half finger gloves.

"I don't crowd with herbivores," Hibari grunted.

"I must agree with the skylark," Mukuro spoke up, "I do not wish to help the mafia."

Haruka smirked. "As individuals I can tell that you are stronger than the first generation Vongola. But overall, you're all weak. At least in Primo's time, Alaude and even that pompous idiot Daemon would work together to get the job done. I can tell that they were stronger than all of you."

Hibari's patience snapped and charged at the girl. But Haruka stopped his attacks with one hand.

"Don't try me boy. I don't even have to use my powers on the likes of you." Haruka pushed the prefect back, sending him flying several feet. "You're 400 years too early to challenge the likes of me."

Hibari smirked. This girl would be very fun to bite to death.

"I'm going to go into position to fight, maybe even at full power," Haruka continued like there was no interruption. "The only chance you have of not dying is to not only use full power yourself, but to fight as a team. This will also be a good way for me to assess all of your combat ability so that I can figure out how to train you individually."

Mukuro grinned. "Oya, oya? I don't need training, especially from a Mafioso."

"One: I'm not a part of the mafia. I just lend my assistance when it benefits me. Two: Yes you do, because if Daemon had a body," Haruka smirked, "he would have beaten you to a pulp."

Haruka sighed and rolled her eyes. "Look, even I recognize Spade's strength. I recognize all of the first generation of Vongola's strength. And do you know why?" Haruka didn't wait for an answer. "Because I'm the one who trained them!"

Now this was a surprise for all of them.

Haruka raised a hand and rubbed her temples at the memory. "Yeah, even Alaude. I trained every single one of the first generation. Otherwise I wouldn't have given them the rings."

"How'd you get Daemon Spade to train with you?" Reborn asked.

"Blackmail," Haruka said easily and with a blank face.

"Lampo?"

"Harassment."

"Alaude."

"Mocked his strength."

"What about Knuckle, since he didn't fight."

"Combat training, I gave him an hour's break between every three minutes. During the rest of the hour he worked on physical training like pushups. I also had him work on dodging my attacks."

"Asari."

"He was looking for a sparring partner anyways."

"G."

"Dragged him outside and/or held a gun to his head."

"What about Primo?" Tsuna asked nervously, instead of Reborn.

Suddenly Haruka looked like she was drained of all her energy. "He used blackmail on me."

Tsuna scrunched his face in confusion. "Huh?" Since Haruka had basically threatened the rest of the first generation, he was expecting her to have tortured Primo into training or something.

"That idiot wouldn't train unless I went to dinner with him, or let him drag me around town, or even worse _wear a dress_! ARG! He was such a moron!" Haruka ruffled her hair fiercely as she remembered the horrible experiences. She exhaled loudly and turned back to the group. "Now please get into your Cambio Forma and prepare to fight me as a _group_."

Haruka stepped back and slipped into hyper dying will mode like Tsuna, though without the flame on her forehead. The seven teenagers called forth their power as well.

The white haired girl nodded. "Alright. Now I'll only go into full power if all of you are fighting as a team. Now," she crouched down a little. "Let's see what you've got."

Everyone charged forward to attack.

* * *

><p>"Pathetic," Haruka said for the umpteenth time.<p>

Hibari had long since stalked off when Haruka had declared that she was done fighting. None of them had been able to land a single blow on her and Haruka hadn't even used her full power.

Reborn smirked. "What is your analysis on their individual abilities?"

Haruka raised an eyebrow at the question. "You mean, besides that they're pathetic?" She asked sarcastically.

Reborn chuckled a little.

Haruka sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm going to use this week to assess them individually. During that match with all of them, they were too scattered and made plenty of openings for me to take them down. They made themselves weaker as a group instead of stronger. One individual from their group would have more overall strength than they had as a team."

"Nothing else?" Reborn asked skeptically. "How are you going to assess them?"

"I'll be taking Tsunayoshi with me on missions during the mornings, then fighting one of them at night. Of course, since Tsunayoshi is their boss, I will be fighting him last. Then the next week I'll train them individually and then I'll fight them as a group again."

Reborn nodded. "Well then I'll take my leave now."

"Good-night Reborn." Haruka left without a word to the rest of the group. The last thing she saw was Reborn kicking Tsuna and demanding to go home.

* * *

><p><em>She was running with all her might, breathing hard. There was gunshots in the distance. A fire was burning out of control.<em>

_She had to run faster. She could still make it. As long as she ran faster, there was still hope._

_So why couldn't she speed up? She had to save them, they needed her._

_The trees finally cleared and the village came into sight. There was so much red. The fire had spread and was attached to all the houses._

_People were everywhere running. _

_No they were falling._

_They were dead._

_They screamed at her. Pointing their fingers and accusing her._

"_Why! Why didn't you save us? This is all your fault! All your fault!"_

Haruka jolted up, breathing hard and drenched in cold sweat. It was that dream again. One of her biggest regrets in this world and the reason she didn't sleep anymore.

Haruka turned towards the clock and saw that she had only been asleep for 15 minutes.

She felt sick. That dream was horrible.

Haruka pulled her knees up and crossed her arms on top, resting her head on them. She breathed out for a few minutes, trying to clear the images that had just swept through her head.

Earlier, when she had arrived back at the small house she had just bought, Haruka had sat down and used her free time to collect her memories. Now she sorely regretted not waiting till the morning.

Some of her memories were gruesome and really made her hate herself. No matter how she looked at it, there was something different she should have done to protect more people. Others had told her that she had done the right thing to protect the mass majority, but there were so many casualties that Haruka couldn't help but doubt herself.

The young girl got off the bed and walked over to the kitchen, getting herself a glass of water to help clam herself down. Haruka snapped to attention when she heard the door opening and closing. She pulled out her gun and pointed it toward the entrance. "Who's there?" She called out.

"Haruka-nee!" A little red head ran over to hug her. "It took us forever to find you!"

"Get out!" Haruka snapped.

"But Haruka-nee," Arianna whined, "I want to stay with you!"

"Leave, I'm tired." Haruka pulled Arianna off of her carefully and pushed her towards the rest. She walked towards the office and closed the door behind her.

"Come on," Kiyoe said gently. She knew that Haruka was probably in a bad mood because of her dream. She pulled Arianna away and they left the house.

Haruka turned on the computer. She might as well get some work done since she couldn't sleep. After all, the nights are long.

* * *

><p>The next day Tsuna and his usual two friends were talking while they waited for class to start. As the teacher walked in everyone took their appropriate seats so that class could start.<p>

The teacher smiled and greeted the class. "Today we have another transfer student. Please come in and introduce yourself." The teacher gestured to the person waiting outside the doorway.

Tsuna almost shot out of his seat when Haruka, in all her white hair glory, walked into his classroom.

Haruka looked around the class with a blank expression. Her gaze lingered on Tsuna, Yamamoto, and Gokudera a second longer than the rest. "Hi, I'm Haruka. I'll be staying here for a while."

She was immediately bombarded with questions. "Where are you from?"

"I move around a lot so I don't really have one place."

"You said you'd be staying here a while, so does that mean you won't be here long?"

"Depends how much I like this place."

"Where were you before you came to Namimori?"

"Italy."

"How do you like it here so far?"

"It's peaceful."

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No." Haruka had to stop herself from rolling her eyes when the majority of the males in the class made some form of a cheer.

"Why aren't you wearing a uniform?"

"Since I don't know if I'll be here very long, the principal said it was alright if I didn't get one till I was sure."

"What were other schools like?"

"I don't know. They're all different I guess. I haven't been to too many."

"But you said you've been all over!"

"Yeah, but technically I've already finished school. I was also home schooled for the majority."

"If you already finished school then why are you here?"

"I was told that I needed to socialize with certain people my age. And I do believe I should let the teacher get on with his lesson." Haruka turned toward the teacher who was making no move to stop their students. She turned and headed toward the only empty seat, located in the back.

The teacher smiled bashfully and began his lesson.

"She's so cool!" A group of guys whispered to each other while the teacher lectured away. "Yeah, her eyes were like ice! So strong looking! I bet her smile would be cute!"

Haruka sighed and tuned out the weak idiots. Instead she focused her attention on the three Vongola boys, watching them with her peripheral vision. She studied their movements and quirks, trying to figure out more about their personality so that she could apply it to her training later. But she eventually ran out of things to study when all three of them fell asleep during the lesson.

The moment the lunch bell rang Haruka stood up and woke Tsuna roughly by grabbing him by the collar and dragging him out of the room, of course Yamamoto and Gokudera were close behind.

"Oi! You! Let go of Juudaime!" Gokudera shouted and ranted as Haruka ignored him and continued to drag Tsuna up a flight of stairs.

The girl finally unceremoniously dumped the boy when she had reached the roof. Tsuna rubbed his neck and breathed out in relief. After checking to make sure Tsuna was alright and apologizing profusely, Gokudera rounded back on Haruka.

"How dare you treat Juudaime that way!" Gokudera yelled and took out some dynamite.

"I'm sure you're already well aware how outmatched you are, especially after last night," Haruka said the last part through a yawn.

Gokudera clenched his teeth in frustration, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to do much and so replaced his dynamite from wherever he had them hidden before. "So what do you want?"

"Eh? Since when did I need a reason?" Haruka said with the full intention riling up Gokudera. She watched with amusement as Gokudera raged and stormed around about her attitude. Yamamoto and Tsuna did their best to calm him down, but Haruka was sorely tempted to piss him off again. When the silverette finally blew off enough steam, the young looking girl spoke up again. "I actually brought Tsuna up here to remind him that I was taking him on his first mission with me after school ends today, and I wanted him to meet me at the front gate as soon as classes end."

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?" Gokudera yelled loudly.

"Because it was just _too_ easy to piss you off, so I had to give it a go." Haruka plugged her ears with her fingers and waited for the boy to stop yelling. When she finally had her hands free from her ears Haruka waved to the boys to signal that she was leaving.

'_Really_,' Haruka thought sarcastically, '_Sending him into a fit of temper tantrums is just too easy. I could really turn that against him in battle. In fact…I think I will._' Haruka smirked as she descended the stairs. She would fight Gokudera first tonight and she was going to mess with the boy a bit.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh Haruka, you can be so mean. Well I hope you liked this chapter! Please review and let me know what you thought! <strong>

**Thanks for reading! See ya!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey there! I apologize for the long wait, I'm just having a difficult time motivating myself into writing fighting scenes. So to try making my updates a little faster with this story, I'll only write out a full fighting scene when I really feel like it. Sorry to those who would rather read about that, but this is a good time for you to use your imagination!**

**Also, for those who were wondering, I can't remember exactly which song I was listening to when I wrote out the scene for that moment when Haruka was playing the piano, but here's a list of songs that would work for it (at least that's what I feel). All of them are by Yiruma: Spring Time, A River Flows in You, Time Forgets, Lord Hold My Hand, Spring Waltz.**

**Now here is chapter five! Please REVIEW afterwards!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 5 Motorbikes and Mafia<p>

Just as Haruka promised, she was waiting for Tsuna outside the school. But to Tsuna's horror, she was leaning against a motorcycle. She was currently ignoring all the stares she was getting from the students. She could've called for a car, but then it would have been easier for Tsuna's two closest friends to follow.

Haruka tossed a helmet to the boy once he had passed the front gates. "Hurry up! I have an appointment to keep."

"Hiiiiiiee!" Tsuna shouted as he (miraculously) caught the helmet. "What do you mean!"

Haruka sighed, exasperated. "I know you know how to drive one of these. So get on already. I'll sit behind you so that I can watch our backs."

"No way! Dame-Tsuna knows how to ride a motorcycle!" Students where whispering loudly as they watched unashamed.

Tsuna was sweating bullets. "I-I-I d-don't think th-that's a good idea," he stuttered.

Suddenly Reborn kicked the boy from behind and sent him skidding to a stop right next to the bike. "Get going Tsuna. Don't keep Haruka waiting."

"Wait!" Gokudera shouted. "As Juudaime's right hand man, I'll be coming as well!"

"No can do," Haruka said bluntly. She pulled Tsuna up onto the bike, jammed the helmet onto Tsuna's head and pulled on her own head cover. "Now drive," she commanded and placed her arms around his waist.

"Be sure to return my punchin- I mean student, in one piece," Reborn called out.

Haruka gave the small hitman a two fingered salute then turned to the brunette in front of her and ordered him to take off. Tsuna was shaking from all the attention from other students, but the threatening glare from Reborn and the irritated tone from the girl seated behind him was enough to get him going. To all of the surrounding students' amazement Tsuna sped off on the bike, rounding a corner without crashing. He even looked confident on the machine.

* * *

><p>"So where are we going exactly?" Tsuna asked after driving around for a while. He was trying to distract himself from the arms wrapped around his waist and the body pressed up against his back. He still wasn't used to female contact.<p>

"We're going to do a mission for the Giglio Nero Family," Haruka replied, half absentmindedly.

"What are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Haruka shrugged. "We'll find out when we get there."

"I won't have to kill anyone, will I?"

"I doubt it, knowing their boss. But then again, you never know," Haruka said ominously.

Tsuna started to grow even more nervous. He really didn't want to have to do anything really bad like killing. He really hated fighting, so he would prefer a job that wouldn't put him anywhere near the possibility of violence.

Haruka's head snapped up and she looked around carefully. She smirked. "Looks like we're going to be in for a fight."

"Wh-what!" Tsuna screeched.

"Just keep driving," Haruka ordered. She turned around and hopped up so that she was crouching on the back of the bike, her fingers pressing against the seat lightly to help maintain her balance. "Your experience in the future should have taught you have to maneuver in battle, am I correct?"

Tsuna nodded.

"Good. Then while I fight, you make sure we don't crash, alright?" Haruka's hands lit up with storm flames and her eyes sapphire eyes started to glow. "Just to make sure, go into your hyper dying will mode. I don't want you freaking out whenever a bullet flies your way."

Other motorcycles sped up from around corners and started to attack Haruka and Tsuna, but the girl was able to fight them off. Every so often she would jump onto other bikes and knock the rider off, then ride the bike in front of another enemy and jump off, resulting in the other to crash.

Both Haruka and Tsuna created a shield from the on slaughter of bullets with their flames. If an enemy got too close, and Haruka was busy, Tsuna would assist and kick or punch the adversary away. But for the most part, Tsuna really only had to make sure he drove carefully so that it was easier for Haruka to fight.

Soon the enemies on motorcycles were gone, but a sleek black car took their place.

Haruka crouched back down so that she could talk to Tsuna again. "On a count of three, I want you to speed up alright. Three blocks from when I jump, you can turn around and come get me again. Got it?"

Tsuna gave curt nod. "Be careful."

Haruka smirked. "Like I could die," she said sarcastically and stood up. "Ready? 1…2…3!"

Simultaneously Tsuna throttled the bike and sped forward while Haruka used the sudden burst of speed to propel herself onto the hood of the black car. She landed in a crouch, like she had started out on the bike, using her hands to stabilize herself once more. The men in the vehicle gazed at Haruka in shock.

Haruka's smirk grew a little wider. "Sorry boys," Haruka raised a flaming fist. "But I believe we're at your stop." She punched through the car and pulled in the braking system causing the car to skid to a stop. The flames on her hand set the rest of the car ablaze.

The four men jumped out of the vehicle, which was just what Haruka had planned. Using the moment when their heads first made it outside the automobile, Haruka used a quick chop to the back of their neck and knocked them unconscious. She used rain flames to quell the fire she created while she tied the men up, using the same rope that they had probably originally been planning to use on her.

Tsuna drove back around just as Haruka was standing up. "You're certainly efficient."

"Pfft," Haruka snorted. "Impatient is more like."

Tsuna stared at her a bit with his fiery orange eyes. "Still, I don't understand why you brought me along. I thought this was a way to test me, but you've been doing all the fighting."

"These are just small fry. I want to see how you handle the mission itself," Haruka explained. She climbed back onto the bike. "Let's go, I don't want to be late."

Tsuna, who had faded out of hyper dying will mode, continued to drive the motorcycle for another half hour before he spoke up again. "Ano…Haruka-san, we're not doing any assassination jobs are we?" Tsuna just had to ask again, this thought had been weighing on his mind for a while now.

Haruka really wanted to slap the back of the boy's head for forgetting what she said during their first meeting, but decided to torment him a little. "Dunno. We might or we might not. It depends on what our employer has planned."

"You mean you _really_ don't know what we're doing!" Tsuna exclaimed.

Haruka shrugged. She held in her snickers as Tsuna visibly panicked about the upcoming job. It was all he could do to keep himself from falling to pieces. '_Reborn would be _so _proud_,' Haruka thought with a small amount of smugness.

* * *

><p>Tsuna was shaking slightly when they walked up to what appeared to be an abandoned house in the middle of a forest. Haruka instructed Tsuna to keep his mouth shut if anyone but the boss approached them.<p>

As they neared the house a man in a black suit approached them. After a few quick words with Haruka, the two were lead into and through the house toward a large office situated near the back of the building. The man went inside the office while Haruka and Tsuna waited outside for a bit. But it was only for a moment and once they were inside, Haruka was greeted with an armful of Yuni.

"Haruka-chan!" Yuni cried out happily as she snuggled herself closer.

Haruka allowed herself a soft smile. "Hey there kiddo. You sure have grown. How are you feeling? You doing alright?"

"Un!" Yuni said with a nod. She pulled away from the white haired girl so that she could greet Tsuna properly. "It's good to see you again Sawada-san!"

Tsuna smiled as well. "It's good to see you too Yuni-chan. Hello Gamma-san."

Gamma nodded in acknowledgment.

"Hmm~ So this is the famous Haruka-chan, Yuni-chan was talking about huh?" A voice sang out behind the group.

"If you step within three feet of me Byakuran, I'll drop you without a second thought," Haruka threatened without even looking around.

The white haired boy laughed. "This girl seems like a lot of fun!"

"Maybe I should just drop him now," Haruka muttered softly. Byakuran's voice alone was enough to royally piss Haruka off.

"Haruka-chan you mustn't!" Yuni exclaimed.

Haruka sighed but agreed. "So, what's our job for today boss?"

Yuni giggled. "I asked Gamma to get something ready for you!"

The group turned toward the young blonde. "I figured from my memories of the future that Sawada-san isn't really into fighting, so this will just be a retrieval as well as well as an information gathering focused mission."

Haruka puffed up her cheeks in a mock pout. "How boring, and I was looking forward to seeing Tsunayoshi fight a whole warehouse of mafia assassins!"

Tsuna shuddered. "Thank you Gamma-san!" Tsuna said graciously.

Haruka rolled her eyes before becoming more serious. "So what are we gathering information of?"

"There's a rumor that the Todd family has been growing stronger and that they've gotten their hands on a device that could give them an edge in battle." Gamma handed a file to Haruka.

She whistled. "Miniature nuclear bombs, though they only have two. That must have cost a pretty penny. We'll get the information to you in six to seven hours."

Gamma raised an eyebrow in skeptical surprise. "That fast?"

"Yeah. And I'll also be delivering a copy of the information to Vongola Nono." Haruka passed the file back to Gamma. "Shall we retrieve all the bombs?"

"If you can," Yuni answered.

Haruka nodded. "Alright Tsunayoshi. Let's go."

"W-What!" Tsuna yelled and ran after Haruka, who was already down the hall. "Haruka-san! We can't possibly pull this off, especially that fast!"

"That's right, we can't." Haruka tossed a helmet to Tsuna.

"Then why did you-"

Haruka cut the boy off. "_We_ won't, but _you_ will." Tsuna looked like he was going to faint. "If you fall unconscious at any time between now and during this mission, I'll make your life ten times worse than Reborn has made it."

This made Tsuna shudder. After all, what could possibly be worse than _Reborn_?

* * *

><p>It turned out that the Todd Family was still the flop they were when they tried to kidnap Fuuta.<p>

Haruka was _so_ mad about them wasting all her time like that, that she kicked Tsuna out and off their hiding spot on the ceiling of the warehouse where the Todd family was transporting the bombs, and made him beat the crap out of every person there. Meanwhile Haruka sauntered up to the device, making sure to step on every person in her path whether they were conscious or not, and picked up the box containing the two explosives.

She then stalked over to the Todd family boss and stomped down where no man wants a foot to make contact with, using enough force to make Tsuna flinch sympathetically. Finally she left the building in a rather indignant fashion with Tsuna trailing behind.

"Piece of trash! Bothering others when they're so weak!" Haruka grumbled as she pulled on her helmet and tossed the other to Tsuna.

Tsuna sweat dropped a little. He couldn't help but think that she sounded a little bit like the oh-so temperamental Varia leader.

"And I do _not_ sound like Xanxus!"

Tsuna jumped, thinking that he may be in a lot more trouble with two sadistic mind readers in his life. He climbed on the bike and took off, heading back home.

Tsuna pulled to a stop and parked the motorcycle out of view from the front door and climbed off after Haruka. Originally, Haruka had planned to eat meals at her house, but Reborn had guilt tripped her into eating with them. Nana had been extremely pleased when Tsuna had introduced yet another 'cute young girl' and had been more than happy to have her eat with them. Actually Nana was all for having Haruka just flat out _live_ with them, but Haruka had argued that she would feel absolutely terrible for imposing so much and that the meals were more than enough. Eventually Nana had given in, albeit a little dejectedly, but made up for it by insisting that Haruka ate till she was stuffed.

However, the delicious meal was not enough to relieve all of Haruka's frustration from the mission. She had been able to hack into the Todd's Family's information network without even actually trying. The password turned out to be: The Todd Famiglia Boss Rossi. Pathetic right? So to make herself feel better, and to tease Tsuna's storm guardian, Haruka dragged Tsuna with her to the school an hour before she was supposed to meet the bomber brat.

* * *

><p><strong>Haruka POV<strong>

I couldn't help but laugh evilly as I thought of a plan to send Gokudera into a bout of distress.

Tsuna, who was next to me, shivered and started edging away. But before he could even think of making a run for it, Reborn chained him up with Leon.

"Sounds like you plan on using Dame-Tsuna for Gokudera's fight," Reborn said with a cheerful smirk.

I smiled a little. "Wanna help?"

Reborn smirk grew more evil (if that was even possible).

Poor little Tsunayoshi was practically in tears now. I guess in his mind he was dreading the idea of a tag team of torturers. But that would make his pleas for help more pitiful and have more of an effect on the storm guardian.

We waved to Nana and left for Namimori Middle, towing an unwilling Tsuna behind us as we chatted.

"So how is your research on our curses going?" Reborn asked as he jumped up onto Tsuna's shoulder to hitch a ride.

"It could be going better," I said exasperatedly. "I've been having trouble with finding a stable way to release it. But so far the only thing I can come up with will either cause _you guys_ to be torn to shreds or the _planet_ to get torn to shreds. And I don't really like either option, so I'm still looking."

Reborn turned and stared at me, studying me like he was looking for something. "What about you?"

I couldn't, no didn't, answer right away. "My curse is…different."

Reborn frowned. "So you know how to lift it? Then why not rid yourself of it?"

"I chose to take on this curse a long time ago."

This time Tsuna turned to stare. "Why would you choose to place a curse on yourself?"

I didn't turn to look at either male. I just kept staring ahead, focusing on the path we had to take to arrive at the school grounds. "It's…complicated."

"Un-complicate it." Of course that's what Reborn would demand.

Okay, let's try a different tactic. "It's personal."

"Let us help." Tsuna you're not helping me any when you ask for that.

I waved them off. "It's fine. I'm okay with just looking for a way to help the Arcobaleno."

Reborn tilted his fedora down a little. "It's not your fault that we received the curse of the rainbow."

I couldn't help but frown a little bit. It was always difficult to hide my distress whenever one of the strongest seven said thing like that to me. "You're wrong," I whispered.

After that we didn't really talk a much for the remainder of the trip to the school. We arrived moments later at the school, and luckily there was still no sign of Gokudera, which meant that we could get the set up ready so that when the storm boy _did_ arrive he would be sent into a deep spiraling pit of worry.

Tsuna started quivering when Reborn and I started chuckling darkly again. Torture always works best when the victim is scared out of their mind. Tsuna's fear will also play a big role in my fight against Gokudera.

* * *

><p>Gokudera came skulking onto the school grounds shortly after Reborn and I finished the preparations.<p>

"What do you want woman?" The silverette growled.

'_This boy's arrogance is too much. He'll do more damage as Decimo's right hand than good with that temper and attitude of his. It really is a shame that he still acts that way, even when G had already warned him about that insolence. But let's see if I can make a difference by scaring him a little._'

"You're going to fight me today. One-on-one and I want you going at full force," I said calmly. The boy smirked and pulled out his Vongola belt buckle thing. He was about to go into his cambio forma when I cut him off. "However, your previous actions are about to catch up with you."

Right on cue, Tsuna screamed.

Gokudera's head snapped up so fast, I was sure that it was going to break off. "Juudaime!" The bomber brat whirled back around to me. "Release Juudaime at once! How dare you do that to him!"

One of the many ropes supporting Tsuna snapped.

I smirked. This boy was a foolish one. He did not even stop to consider what I meant about his past actions. "Your ridiculous temper will be your boss' undoing," I called. "Every time you lack patience or your tolerance drops dangerously low, a rope will break. You must be able to exert the calm before the storm, to think quickly and logically, so that you can overwhelm the enemy effectively. I'm sure G already told you this."

Gokudera couldn't tell, but it was Reborn who was torturing Tsuna and cutting the ropes whenever Gokudera said or did something that revealed his arrogant and impatient attitude.

Gokudera ground his teeth in frustration. He knew this already, but old habits were difficult to change dammit! He took a deep breath to calm himself a little. "Uri, cambio forma."

* * *

><p>"I'm done fighting for tonight," I said calmly as I turned away from a panting Gokudera and started walking toward the school.<p>

"Wh-What?" Gokudera

"I've gathered enough information for tonight," I told the boy as I continued to walk away. "It's not a fight to the death. I only needed to fight you till I had enough information to determine a training course for you." I took a quick glance back at the boy before stooping directly under a still shrieking Tsuna who was still being tortured by Reborn.

I formed a few ice needles and tossed them so that they sliced the rest of the ropes supporting the brunette. And before Gokudera could freak out too much, I jumped up and caught the falling (and screaming) boy. Reborn sat on the kid's stomach, then jumped off once I had lowered the boy onto the ground.

"I thought I was gonna die," Tsuna said in relief.

"What type of trainer would I be if I actually let a student die?" I asked indignantly, though it may have come out more sarcastic. Reborn smirked, but said nothing. "Besides, I don't think I'm capable of killing that man's descendant," I muttered under my breath.

Tsuna and Reborn looked up at me curiously, but I just looked away. I don't want them to know too much about me. That will just create more attachments and make it more painful when they grow up and die. Everyone dies someday, that's just how life is. I've watched generation of humans go by, and I've learned that it is better to leave them be and not get attached. It'll be less painful when I finally learn that they've passed away.

"Juudaime! I'm so glad you're alright!" Gokudera shouted and knelt by Tsuna. He looked like a faithful puppy looking up to its master. A rather irritating trait in my books, but Tsuna didn't seem to mind it too much. That or he was used to it and unable to find a way to make it stop. "I apologize for being unable to protect you from this woman's horrible plan, I'm a failure as a right hand man!"

I wonder, if I hit the kid upside the head every time he acted like a stupid puppy then would I be able to train him to act like a normal person?

"It's fine, really Gokudera-kun," Tsuna reassured his friend.

Heh, heh. Trained. I'm going to end up training him like a little doggie if he keeps this up.

"Only Juudaime would be so forgiving!"

You know, maybe I should just treat him that way. It might teach him to stop.

Tsuna sweat dropped a little at Gokudera's enthusiasm.

Then again, it's kind of entertaining to see a mini Giotto looking so uncomfortable. This Gokudera is managing to bother this mini Giotto in ways I was never able to irritate the real Giotto.

I sighed and dragged myself back to reality. "Look it's late, I want to go home."

"Then just leave woman!" Gokudera snapped.

I felt a vein pop. You know what, maybe I'll just hit this kid for the hell of it. "I would, but I need to talk to Reborn and Tsuna."

"I shall accompany you home Juudaime," The storm guardian proclaimed excitedly.

My eyebrow started twitching from the rising irritation. "_Alone_!"

"I'm not leaving Juudaime alone with this suspicious woman!"

I'm not a killer. I'm not a killer. I'm not a killer.

"G-Gokudera-kun, it's alright. I trust Haruka-san."

"If Juudaime says so," the boy mumbled reluctantly. "Goodnight Juudaime! Reborn-san!" Finally the boy turned and left.

As I accompanied Tsuna home, I reported the events that occurred on our mission. I also told Reborn, and reminded Tsuna, that I was taking the boy on another mission the next morning. But I also asked for Reborn's advice on who I should take with me to test their ability to work together.

Reborn smirked and jumped from Tsuna's shoulder onto mine, then whispered an answer into my ear so that Tsuna wouldn't be able to hear him.

I raised an eyebrow skeptically. Was this guy serious? That could turn this relatively simple mission into a suicidal one. But that could be a good test. If they were together then it would be a good way to determine their teamwork. But that could also turn into a lot of work for me.

"Haruka-san, what are you two talking about?" Tsuna asked tentatively.

I looked over at the boy with a blank face. Yes, this would work. "Nothing much Tsunayoshi. You'll find out tomorrow after school."

But before the boy could protest, the world suddenly became hazy and disoriented and I sagged into the wall breathing hard. I tried to stay on my feet, but the effort was in vain and I fell onto my knees before finally just sitting down.

"Haruka-san! Are you alright?" Tsuna called out in concern.

I was too tired to bother answering him. I knew that I had used a lot of flames to fight these past two nights, but I thought I could at least maintain a casual air till I got back home. If I fell unconscious here, then I would see that horrible dream again and then wake up screaming or something. Then Tsunayoshi and Reborn will know something is up.

I don't want anyone else to know me or to get close. It'll just hurt all the more when they're dead and gone. Just like everyone else. Just like…

I eyes flew open as I felt someone pick me up.

"What the-!" I looked over to see the brunette holding me up. I didn't think he had the strength to carry me bridal style without going into HDWM.

"Just hold on for a sec," he said with a comforting smile. "You can rest back at my house. I'm sure mom won't mind."

"It's alright!" I protested. "I'll be fine in a few minutes, then I'll go back to my place!"

"Don't lie, Haruka," Reborn said as he jumped up onto my stomach. "You used up a lot of flames and now you're exhausted. And you probably didn't sleep very much or at all last night, making your recovery even slower."

As Tsuna started walking I threw my arms around his neck instinctively. "P-Please put me down!"

Tsuna stopped walking and looked down at me in surprise.

Reborn on the other hand smirked. "Are you scared of being carried this way?" He asked smugly.

Erk. What do I do now? There's no way I'll admit that I'm terrified of being carried this way. I don't even know why it freaks me out. No, face! Don't heat up!

"You are, aren't you?" Reborn's smirk grew.

"N-No…" Damn! I stuttered. That was supposed to come out way more confidently. Crap! I think I'm blushing.

"I won't drop you if that's what you're worried about," Tsuna said with another smile and started walking again.

My grip tightened and I started shaking a little. "W-Wait! Really! I'm fine! P-Please put me d-down!"

"Calm down, we're almost there," Reborn smugly.

I really feel like whimpering a little, but then that'll only fuel Reborn's teasing later. So I opted for just squeezing my eyes shut and focusing on making my flames regenerate as quickly as possible. I was overjoyed when Tsuna finally put me down, even if it was in his house. I watched him go over to the kitchen and make tea.

Could Tsuna do that? As far as I could remember from the manga and anime that Caty showed me, Tsuna was always a klutz and incapable of doing anything. I guess this is the stuff the manga and anime never cared to show. But that makes sense I suppose. Here they are real people, not some fictional character. Then again, I'm already aware of that after living with the first generation of Vongola…

Ugh, this is giving me a headache. Having my consciousness dropped in the current time, but also having memories of living here in the past is getting confusing. Everything feels real, then…well not real, every time I look at look at something of someone I saw in the manga or anime.

And this lack of energy is making my headache worse. Maybe if I took a short nap I would be able to regain enough of my strength, but that would mean allowing myself to show vulnerability to Tsuna and Reborn.

I happen to like my defensive walls. They make this world less painful. I mean, I can't exactly take up the angels' offer to go on to Heaven. I still feel responsible for killing that man. And I've also hurt a lot of people in this world by existing here.

"So what's causing you to be running so low on flames?" Reborn asked after taking a sip of his tea.

"I dunno," I said with a sigh. I ran my hand through my bangs. "Maybe I'm getting too old for this."

"Haruka-san why do you continue to make yourself keep living, even though it's so painful for you?" Tsuna asked after seating himself on the couch beside me.

"This is my punishment for the sins I have committed," I answered.

Tsuna frowned a little. "Isn't 400 years enough? Isn't it about time you forgive yourself?"

I stiffened a little at the boy's words. Did Tsuna know something? Did he remember…? No, that wasn't possible. Then perhaps it was his hyper intuition, was that it? I should say something; Reborn and Tsuna are studying me.

I sighed again. "You and Giotto, have the uncanny ability to read me when I try to keep my pages closed."

"What happened that makes you so unwilling to move one?" Reborn asked.

I gazed off into space as I remembered the events that occurred on my sister's birthday. I did so many things wrong that day. Then when I tried to make amends in this world, I ended up ruining the lives of a whole village. I couldn't even help stupid Giotto and those other two idiots. I've hurt so many…

"You know. After living in this world for 400 years, I've seen many a generation come and go. Even so, I offer advice now and then to each generation. However humans never seem to learn. They will repeat the mistakes of their ancestors over and over, and each time I will watch despite knowing that they will make the same mistake once again, in the hope that that generation will change." I looked back at Tsuna and Reborn, making eye contact with both of them.

"You know how babies come into the world, they hold their hands in fists right?" I held out both of my hands in fists and Tsuna nodded. "That is because they know nothing of the world and want it all. But when I finally die, I would like to die like this." I held out my hands once more, but this time with my hands open and with the palms up. "Do you know why?"

Tsuna shook his head.

"That's because I want to die with no regrets. When you die, you take nothing with you, and that is what I want to be like when I finally reach my end." I turned my gaze to Tsuna's eyes, making eye contact and making sure he didn't look away. "Let me ask you a question, Tsunayoshi… When you die, will you die like this?" I held up my fists. "Or this." I uncurled my fingers and help my hands open. "Many generations may think they can answer right away, but when the time comes they are still trying to collect all they can of the world. Humans are all greedy in different ways. Before you can answer the question truthfully, you must know what your greed it. And when you do, you have to decide whether it is something that you must change or not."

There was a quiet knock on the door and I stood up. "That must be my ride."

I stood up and walked over to the entrance, slipping on my shoes, and opening the door. Kiyoe stood at the entrance, just like I had predicted. She stepped aside as I stuffed my hands into my pocket and started walking out of the house, but I paused for a second and looked around toward Tsuna and Reborn who were watching.

"Here is another piece of advice Tsunayoshi." I smirked a little. "Don't believe everything I say. I am a very good liar. Even Vongola Primo with his hyper intuition couldn't tell…Goodnight Reborn, Tsunayoshi."

I turned and walked away without another word.

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><p><strong>And that is the end of this chapter. No duh, I know. I just felt like stating the obvious, so sue me! Actually please don't I'm broke.<strong>

**Anyways, please tell me what you think! If you _really_ want a summaary of how Haruka's and Gokudera's fight went, then let me know in your review and I'll PM it to you! Nice bribe right! ;)**

**Oh! And I was wondering which reading advantage you like more. Should I continue writing the story in Haruka's POV, Everyone's POV, or switch off and on?**

**Thanks for reading!**


	6. Important Notice and teaser

**A/N IMPORTANT**

**Okay dear readers, I have come to a dilemma. You see this story, although my first KHR story is not coming out how it was originally written.**

**You see, I thought that maybe a more angsty/cold-hearted ish character wouldn't be that popular. So I tried to use the guardian angel twist to make Haruka a little more light hearted. However that also means that I have to edit the original story to fit this new Haruka. This makes updates for this story very slow.**

**So I would like your opinion. There are two options:**

**Go with the flow. Since I've already started the story this way, then I _can_ continue. All of you should just be aware that the updates will be a ton slower than my other story Twin Dilemma.**

**Change it back. I can turn the story back into what it was supposed to be. I could probably get this done pretty quickly. I think the updates should come faster too!**

**I'll leave a poll up for this, or you can leave it in a review. Thank you _so_ much for reading this story.**

**As a thanks, to keep you guys interested, and for Giotto's birthday, here's a short piece from future chapters.**

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><p>"How's Franco's condition?" Giotto asked desperately as he ran up.<p>

"…Not good…" one of the few kind, brave, and helpful villager replied. "Doctors were threatened by them and didn't show up."

Two children tugged and cried for the dying man.

"Why did this happen to Franco?" Giotto demanded.

"It's because he didn't give them 90% off," G informed his friend.

"What!" Giotto was outraged. These villagers could barely live with their regular pay. There was no way they could keep giving these horrible people that much of a discount. But his anger dissipated with the rain and gave into sorrow. "…This town is a paradise for outlaws…They…threaten the Towns' people and take money away. If we don't do as they say, they'll just resort to violence. We can't rely on the police since they already gave into them…But…" Giotto kneeled down and picked up a crushed flower. "I love this town…It's a poor town, but shines like the sun…The towns' people are always happy and I like their smile… Just shutting up and watching the town fall into ruin! I've had enough already!" Giotto slammed a fist against the wall.

"A vigilante group…Giotto." Cozart looked up from the two kids he was comforting.

"A vigilante group!" The blond questioned disbelievingly.

"If nobody can help us, we must save the town by ourselves," Cozart explained.

"However, in order to do so, we need a powerful leadership than can manage people," Giotto reasoned. "One that can wrap up rain, storm, and even the sun."

"There's no one, but you, Giotto," Cozart said firmly.

"Wha-…Me?" Giotto stared at his friend in disbelief.

"Crap!" The villager looking after Franco swore. "His condition is fading fast."

The three young men tensed.

They started a little when a figure jumped down from the roof.

At first it appeared to be a young male, but upon further inspection, Giotto realized otherwise.

"Ah! It's you! You should be resting," The blond immediately scolded.

But the young girl just stared at him emotionlessly. She slowly turned to look at Franco, then back to Giotto and G. "Do you wish to save this man?" She asked softly. Her voice was almost muted by the rain.

This took them by surprise, but not for long.

"Of course!" Giotto nearly shouted.

The girl nodded and pulled off the hat hiding her hair, which came tumbling out though still tied back. "Then I shall consider my debt repaid with this."

The blond and the two red heads could only stare at the girl in confusion. They watched as she patted the crying children on the head and offered them a small smile.

"It shall be alright, little ones," she said quietly. The children stared and their tears stopped flowing. The girl pulled the two children away from Cozart and to Franco. She gently brush aside the other villager. "Please hold his hands. Now close your eyes and pray for his health."

The four men watched the girl held her hands over Franco's chest and closed her eyes. Giotto, Cozart, and G started in shock as a small yellow flame came to life in her hand and slowly spread over the injured man's body without burning him. They would have said something, but the other male didn't seem to be able to see it.

But as they continued to watch they saw that Franco's wounds were slowly, but surely, healing at a rapid pace. Franco's face, once contorted in pain, was now relaxing and his breathing was becoming steadier.

Finally the girl stopped using whatever power. However there was still a large gash in the man's stomach. Though it no longer seemed as bad, it would be fatal if it wasn't treated. But none of the men had to tell the girl apparently, as she started taking out what looked like simple medical tools from her small sack. The girl ground some herbs and used the rain to turn it into a paste them gently rubbed it into the wound, after which she took out a needle and thread and sowed the wound shut. She rubbed a little more of her medicine onto the cut, then finished with bandaging the wound, asking the kids to help hold up the man as she did so.

Franco awoke just as she finished. "Wha-what?...I'm…I'm not dead?"

The mysterious girl smiled a little. "No Mister Franco. Your kids still need you after all."

"Papa!" Said kids then tackled their father, breaking into tears once more.

Franco sat up and fingered the bandages a little. He looked back up and opened his mouth to speak, but the girl cut him off.

She pressed a couple small bags into Franco's hands. "This is some medicine and money. This is medicinal tea. Make sure you drink a cup a day till you run out. You only need to use half a spoon to make a single cup. This should also be enough to cover the repairs, as well as aid you while you're recovering."

"Why are you doing this for us?" Franco asked. He was extremely grateful, but he was also weary.

The girl jerked her thumb back at Giotto. "This fool helped me, even though he really should have just walked away. However that makes me indebted to him. Helping you has alleviated this. However," the girl sighed, "I am not one to leave behind the innocent either. Therefore, healing you was paying my debt and giving you money for you and your family is my gift."

"Th-Thank you so much!" Franco exclaimed. He could cry he was so happy.

The girl nodded and stood up. "Have a good life, good sir."

Giotto and the others finally had enough sense to approach the girl.

The blond smiled warmly. "Thank you so much for helping. And you really didn't owe me anything." G and Cozart nodded with a warm smile of their own.

The girl just stared at them blankly. "You assisted when you didn't need to. But now that, that is taken care of, I can leave."

"Wait!" Giotto ran up and caught the girl's wrist as she walked away. "At least stay one more night. We'd like to show our appreciation."

"Please let go. I do not need to create any more debts." The girl was getting a little irritated now. She had long since overstayed her welcome.

Giotto shook his head. "I'm not trying to make you owe me anything. I want to say thanks."

The girl frowned a little and opened her mouth to retaliate, but suddenly her eyes flared and she pulled Giotto to the side.

A series of gunshots was heard and the three young males cringed as dust was kicked up around them.

Eventually the sound faded and they peeled their eyes open. But to their surprise, they mysterious girl was standing firm in front of them with a shield of green lighting protecting them.

The girl glared at the attackers, who were also in shock that they were still alive. "You're 500 years too early to challenge the like of me," she hissed, then disappeared in a cloud of indigo mist.

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><p><strong>I hope this was a good teaser! Maybe this will be able to keep some of you interested enough to keep reading, eh?<strong>

**Anyways please let me know. Thank you!**


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